Capital project planning for a circular economy

Abstract

Achieving true sustainability in the conceptualization of new building projects requires radical change compared to traditional green-field projects; circular building principles in a circular economy must become a fundamental part of the process. These principles include product recovery management, life cycle assessment (LCA), design for disassembly sequence planning, adaptability, deconstruction, closed materials loops and dematerialization. These principles recognize the importance of the End-of-Life stage in existing buildings, including adaptive reuse as an attractive alternative in a circular economy. However, the early phases of capital project delivery lack well-developed methods to: (1) decide amongst green-field construction versus adaptive reuse, (2) pre-project planning for closed-loop cycle construction and (3) plan for the optimization of the benefits of adaptive reuse. In this article, we argue that the early capital projects delivery phases for a circular economy should have distinct stages, decision gates and more appropriate planning methods, such as selective disassembly, LCA monetization protocols and optimization methods. An investigation of related studies underpins the capital project planning framework proposed and the research that must still be accomplished to enable a more circular economy in the capital projects sector.

Keywords:

• Adaptive reuse
• capital projects
• sustainability
• circular economy
• closed-loop cycle construction
• net environmental impacts
• life cycle assessment